US commercial crude oil inventories increased 1.1% during the week ending May 12, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 5 million barrels to 467.6 million barrels, higher than the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of a rise of 3.7 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, however, fell by about 2.4 million barrels to 359.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories also declined by around 1.4 million barrels to 218.3 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production decreases
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports increased by 1.31 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.86 million bpd during the week ending May 12, while crude oil exports rose by 1.43 million bpd to about 4.31 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, declined by 137,000 bpd and stood at 12.61 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on May 9, the EIA forecast that crude oil output in the US would average 12.53 million bpd this year, up from 11.90 million bpd in 2022.
Crude oil output in the country in 2024 is forecast to reach 11.88 million bpd.
By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr